From Economic to Legal Competition

The idea of legal competition as a decentralized market process of law provision in which legal clubs compete, has earned an indisputable legitimacy among economists. This book presents a debate concerning the merits of and conditions for a competitive provision of law, with a special focus on institutions in Europe.;The authors analyse three major aspects of the competitive provision of legal rules. First, the conditions under which citizens and firms arbitrate between the different legal orders are investigated. The book then goes on to analyse the supply aspect of the legal market and the consequences of the competitive pressures on the behaviour of the lawmakers. Finally, the conditions under which the State may efficiently control the process of law provision are discussed and justifications to its intervention are presented.;A comprehensive study encompassing both private and public law, and applied and theoretical issues, this book should provide discussion and up-to-date research for students of law and economics, and an authoritative source of information for practitioners in the field of legal competition - in particular those specializing in European issues.

Contents:

Co-ordinating demand and supply of law - market forces or state control?, Jean Michel Josselin and Alain Marciano; on ""legal choice"" and legal competition in a federal system of justice. Lessons for the European legal integration, Sophie Delabruyere; Harmonzation of environmental liability leglisation in the European Union, Michael Faure and Kristel De Smedt; resale price maintenance for books in Germany and the European Union - a legal and economic analysuis, Jurgen G. Backhaus and Reginald Hansen; tax mimicking among regional jurisdictions, Lars P. Feld, Jean-Michel Josselin and Yvon Rocaboy; harmonization of judicial interest payments and litigation in a federalist state, Manuela Muhlode Vereeck; European policymaking - an agency-theoretic analysis of the issue, Dieter Schmidtchen and Bernard Steunenberg; accounting for centralization in the European Union - Niskanen, Monnet or Thatcher?, Pierre Salmon; from fiscal competition to juridicial competition. lessons from the French experience, Didier Danet.